Improvement in reaping-machines



IINTTED STATES PATENT OEETCE siMoNn. oUMMiNs, oEvfrENNA, NEW JERSEY.

i IMPROVEMENT 1N REAPtNcuviAci-'uNEs Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,463, dated November 3, 1863.

To all whom Iit may concern;

Be it known that I, SIMON A. CUMMiNs, lof the town of Vienna, county of Warren, in the State of New Jersey, have invented an improvementin reaping-machines which I believe to be both new and useful; and I hereby declare that the following is a full and exactidescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in an apparatus which receives the grain when cut by the reaper, and delivers it at the side ofthe .ieaper for being formed into swaths orsheaves, acting automatically by its connection with the reaper, and perlorming the functions heretofore commonly accomplished by the tail-board and rake.v

1n the drawings hereto attached, and forming a part of this peciication, in all ot' which the same letters represent the same parts, Figure l is a front View of my apparatus as attachedto the cutter-board of a reaper. Fig. 2 is an inverted back View of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through line x at do ot' Figs. l and 2. Figs-.t and 5 are details showing the vibrating toothed beams .reversed from the position they occupy in Figs. 1 and 2,Y and with the outer ends broken otf.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Instead of using a horizontal or nearly-horizontal tail-board to receive the grain or straw as it is cut by the reaper, I raise a table, A, Figs. l, 2, and-3, slightly inclined backward, as'seen in Fig. 3, and resting upon the cutterboard a d a ot' the reaper. This table is also secured to an end frame-piece, b, and a hat This table A has two ortop piece or plate, c. more slots s s, Figs. l and 3, commencing near the end piece, b, and, asseen very vdistinctly in Fig. l, extending to the other end of the table. The ends of the table thus. divided by these slots are firmly united together, however, by the slats d d. The object of these slots is kto allow the passage of the teeth t tof the vibrating toothed beams through the table. v

As the name indicates, the beamsB B have a horizontal vibratory motion imparted to them by the eccentrics of the column C C, andv upon their anterior face arc provided with the teeth t t, before referred to. They are properly secured to the eccentric piusp p of the column, which consequently gives them not only the and forth, by which the pins t t are alternately protruded through the slots in the face of the table'A, and then withdrawn. The other end ot' these beams-that is, `the one toward the l end 1'rame-piece,b-mny be made to have similar motions in Various ways. It is evident it must have the horizontal motion imparted by the eccentric column C. To give it the toand fro or advancing or receding motion imparted to the other end by the eccentric pinp, I find the simplest plan to be to make an oblique slot in the end, as shown at o in Fig. 5. T-he vslot plays upon a Xedpin shown at a in Fig. l and-dotted in section in place in the oblique .slot o. It is obvious that as a beam B is in which the pin n is rmly tiXed by the action of the eccentric column C,-'the pin will throw forward or withdraw its end ofthe beam very nearly as the other end will be by the eccentric pin p, thus giving a like motion to the beam in its entire length. Another arrangement for the samevpurpose is shown in Fig. 4, where n is the section of the pin; q, a ratchet or dog secured to the inside of the end framepiece, b, and falling at the proper time into the the anterior-or toothed face of the bar B and pressing upon the posterior surface ot' the table. In this arrangement the beam B has a curved surface at the end, upon which the piu n acts to advancethe'pins of the beam through the slot s, compressing the-spring i', and finally, when the beam has reached its greatest b, the ratchet`or dog q falls into the catch q', holding this end ot' the beam up against the back surface ofthe table, and consequently keep its pins projecting through the slot',while the beam moves or vibrates in the opposite direction to the end of its stroke or throw. v.At this moment the ratchetordogq, having passed beyond the limits ot' the catch q', is freed, allowing the spring r to act and throw theend of the beam back against the piu n, and consequently withdrawing the pins t t, `so that they lno longer project beyond the surface ot' the table A. In both these arrangements one `aforesaid vibratory motion, but also one backl moved toward or from the end frame-piece, b,-

catch or notch q', and r a spring attached to prolongation or vibration toward the-end piece,

vthe grain in its full length upon its face.

end of each' beam passes through and plays in a mortise inthe end piece, b, as seen in dotted lines in 2.

I do not conne myself to any particular number of beams. In the drawings I have represented four, but twowould do, and even more than four may be used. When only two are used I should prefer to cause them both to move together in the Vsame direction at the same time; but where four or more are used it is better to cause them to move in sets, as shown in Fig. 3, when it will be seen vthat while the teeth of the iirst and third beam from the bottom are protruding through the slots in the table A and consequently moving from the end piece, b, those of the second and fourth are withdrawn and their beams necessarily moving. toward thesaid end piece, b.

The table A should be high enough to hold I have represented it as rectangular; but I do not confine myself particularly to this form, as I propose, under certain circumstances, to give what l call the free or deliveryedge a sloping `form, as shown by the dotted lines u u, Fig. .1,

in which case I make the lower beams shorter than the upper; and instead of making one continuous slot for the pins of each beam I may make a short slot for each pin, just long enough to give it free play, leaving the space between these several small slots intact. By this means I can strengthen the table evento such an extent as may enable me to dispense with the slats d d. As to thelength ofthe table A, that will of course be governed by the size or width of the reaper to which my improvement may be applied. In some cases I may make it extend entirely to the delivery end of the beams B B, in which 'case it will be as long orlon ger than the cutter-bar of the reaper.

Over the end of the vibrating beams B B, where they pass through the end frame-piece, b, I make a shield, v, of wood, sheet-iron, tin, or. other suitable material, to prevent these ends ofthe vibrating beams from being clogged or fouled by the-uncut and standing grain.

'Ihecolumn G, inclined in a line parallel with the table A, is let Ainto the frame ofthe reaper below and secured above by a trunnion or axis -passing up through the top plate, c.

To give it greater steadiness, it' necessary,it may be supported near the' middle by the stud w, connected at one end withthe collar fw and at the other tirmlyaiixed to a beam, w", extending back from orforming a part of the reaper itself. It will also be seen by reference to Fig. 3, which shows these several parts, that the column is nearly divided or out through in several places, leaving only a pin, p p, to connect the several parts of the column together, and that these pins are eccentric-that is, removed as 4far as'possible` from the proper axis of the column itself. Itis around these pins that one end of the beams B B is secured by a large collar or otherwise, and it is tbc` motion of these pins that imparts a vibratory motion to and withdrawing action to one end, the other end having this motion produced as already described. The motion ot' this column (l is obtained by gearing into or being otherwise connected with the moving parts of the reaper, and this connection maylloe made at bottom, top, or any convenient part ofthe column'.

From this description of the several parts of my invention and their arrangement it is presumed its`mode of operation can be readily appreciated. The object proposed to be accomplishcd' is substantially the same as that for which the various forms of rakes are now used with the reaping-machine; but by my apparatus the cut grain is delivered in the swath with the utmost regularity, and so quietly that the ripest grain will suffer little loss by shatterprostrate upon the ground behind the machine or upon a tail-board, is caught and held in a nearly -vertical position upon the table A. The ,pins t t penetrate to a certain distance tion of thebeam to which they are attached advance the grain a distance about equal to the throw of the beam. Here, by the arrangement ot' the machinery, these teeth are withdrawn until their points do not project above the face of the table. In the meantime another set of teeth attached to another bar rise up, enter among the stalks ofthe grain', advance it on the distance of the throw of their beam to be ment tothe further movement of the grain, and then the other beam comes forward, projecting again its pins among the stalks, and goes through the same motion and accomplishing the same purpose as before. The grain thus ows, as it were, in a steady stream over the face ot' the table, standing almost as erect as it grew in the lield until it reaches the extreme en dsot' the beam and the cutter-bar, from whence it is delivered more regularly and quietly than it could have been done by hand, ready to be bound into sheaves or otherwise disposed of, as the case may require. This alternate motion of the beams and pins applies particularl y where there are four or more beams in the machine; but where only two beams are used lI prefer them to have simultaneous motions, back and forth, to and fro, because otherwise the stalks would be advanced -zigzag or with more agitationv and shattering of the grain than by the intermittent but otherwise regular movement of the whole mass together.

Having thus fully described 'the construction and operation ot my improvementin reaping-machines, what I claim, and desire vto secure therein by Letters Patent of the United States, is v 1. The vibrating toothed beams B B, operat- .ing as set forth, in combination with the slotted l table A, constructed and arranged in the man l ner described. v

each beam and the to-and-t'ro or advancing ing. The grain, when out, instead of falling among the stalks,.and by the vibratory moagain withdrawn, so as to, present no impedi an oscillating motion, which would produce 2. In combination with the slotted table A, l equivalent thereo'for giving the required moconstrucbed and arranged as described, the tionto one end ofthe toothed beamsB B,sub column C, with its eccentrics p p, for giving stantially as set forth. motion to the vibrating toothed beams B B,

v in the manner and for the purpose set forth. SIMON A' GUMMINS 3. The curved end of the toothed beams Bv Witnesses:

B, moving upon the pin n, in combination with A. 0. HOWELL,

the springi', ratchet q, and catch q', or the ELIsHA LIPPENCOTT. 

